I'm Chris and I am addicted to yard sales, garage sales, thrift stores and bargain hunting in general. Visit my site yardsalequeen.com - which I started in 1996.
"Smile" and "VV" (Vintage Value) are the names of two thrift stores I regularly shop at.
I grew up in Clifton Park NY but now live in Lusby, MD. I also lived in other exciting locales such as Schenectady, Watervliet (NY), and Charleston, SC.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Well I never finished my post from Thanksgiving day. There was more that I wanted to say but I never got back to the blog that day.

I forgot to mention my buy at my regular VV store on Monday. In their toy bin I saw my son's current favorite toy: Kacie the Kinderbot robot. I bought one (new in box for $3) at a yardsale a few years ago, and so now we have a "backup" and it was only $1. When they were at Target, they were $39.99

Well in my previous post, I said I wasn't one of those crazy early bird Black Friday shoppers. Well I guess I lied. I was at a Staples at 5:30am on Black Friday waiting in line to buy a 19" flat screen monitor for $199 for my husband for Christmas. But at least I am not one of those tent people camping out at Walmart. I steered way clear of Walmart that day. So while some of you may think I am super cheap because of all my yardsale buys, I don't think I am since I *do* spend money at regular stores (but I just like to get a great bargain). Also bought my husband a 512 MB MP3 player (off ebay) as a gift recently.

We live about an hour away from a regular indoor shopping mall so I didn't go to a mall on Black Friday but didn't manage to hit these: Staples, Giant (grocery store), Target, Bath & Body Works (twice), Belk Dept. Store, JC Penneys (for free mini snowglobe), CVS, VV (yes, they were open and they even had a sale - fill a huge bag of clothes for $3), BJ's Warehouse, and Ace Hardware (for their One Day sale).

I had two coupons for Bath & Body Works: free item (up to $12.50) with any purchase and save $10 off $35 purchase. Well on Black Friday they had a sale on their fancy room deodorizers for $5 (normally $12.50) - but they don't call them "room deodorizers", they call them "Wallflowers". So I used both coupons and I bought a bunch of the room deodorizers as gifts plus a candle (to give to my sister in law). As I checked out, they gave me another $10 off $35 purchase coupon. So then after I left, I started thinking about what am I going to do for gifts for my son's 5 teachers (1 teacher, 2 assistants, 1 Speech Therapist and 1 Occupational Therapist. So I thought what the heck, I'll give them "Wallflowers" and I went back and bought more and used the coupon they had just given me a little earlier.

Today I got "my" Christmas gift from my husband - a Sony S90 Digital camera. It was no surprise since I'm the one who saw it on sale at Target ($199) and he told me to buy it. We had seen that model before at a different store and liked it. My current digital camera is held together by duct tape (I dropped it and the battery compartment won't stay closed on its own).

Oh here's something I forgot to mention the other day, I did a phone interview with a writer from Better Homes & Gardens magazine. They are doing an article about yardsale safety in their April '06 issue and I should get a mention of yardsalequeen.com in it. Knock on wood.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Happy Thanksgiving. It started off pretty rough for me - wasn't feeling well last night or this morning. But I snapped out of it and I'm feeling better and cooking a turkey breast.

I plan on doing a little bit of Black Friday shopping tomorrow - but I don't plan on going crazy and set my alarm for 4am or anything.

Yesterday was the only day this week that Smile was going to be open but I didn't go (actually I couldn't go and it drove me nuts. My 5 year old son had off from school and I won't take him to Smile anymore since he is not a good shopper). I did go to both Vintage Value stores on Monday though. They have two stores and I normally don't go to one since it's a lot smaller and further away, but I went on Monday and found several nice tops for me (and they also have .30 days so my new-to-me clothing was .30 each, Liz Claiborne, St. Johns Bay etc).

Friday, November 18, 2005

Went to my thrifts this week. My favorite buy was this Espirit purse for .50 at Vintage Value - looks brand new, no marks or anything inside. Since I went to VV on a .30 day I also bought some clothing including a new looking Johnny Knoxville Jackass shirt (probably for me) and a Ralph Lauren short sleeve buton down shirt for my husband (each were .30). At Smile I bought my son a Fisher Price tape recorder with microphone for $1, a reversible talking Veggietale Larryboy plush (for ebay) and bunch of other little stuff.

I had to stop at Walmart for something the other day and I wish I had had my camera in my car. I parked my car next to a grassy patch and when I got back to my car, I see someone had parked their Amish horse and buggy next to it. Acck...with all the car traffic at the Walmart, I feel sorry for the horse who must be scared.

Bought two turkey breasts (.99 lb) at the grocery store for Thanksgiving. We'll have one next week and save the other one for later.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

My favorite buy this week at Smile was this great vintage picnic basket for $3. The manufacturer's label depicts a Native American Indian and the politically incorrect name Red-Man Quality Baskets Peru, Indiana. I just love it because of the design and the fact that it will be great for storage. With all the stuff I buy, I gotta have my storage! As I was walking around the store with it, one lady came up to me and said "wow, what a great basket". I love it when that happens, it just reaffirms that I think I have a good eye for junk.

I also bought some other stuff, a Boy Scout uniform shirt (for ebay) that was .50, a very cute battery operated dog (called Artlist Collection dog) that barks and wags his tag furiously ($1). Plus other stuff.

Today was another beautiful fall day and there were two large outdoor yardsales, one at a school and one at a church. Bought some Christmas sock monkeys at $1 each, an old green handled egg beater $1, a Smokey the Bear ashtray $1 and two sealed boxed sets of the 80's tv show Five Mile Creek at $3 each (pictured above). I had never heard of it but knew that the boxed DVD sets of any program usually sell for $25 and higher. I put one of them up on ebay already.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

My husband took off half a day and we went out to lunch to a Lonestar. Then stopped at Target to look around. Just bought one thing. They had electric 6-sheet paper shredders on clearance for $2.48, normally $9.99. It fits over a trash can. Or in my case, I'll shred whatever needs shredding into our paper recycling bag. (I'm a big recycler). I don't think I'll need to do a lot of shredding, but as it is now, I tear up credit card applications etc.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

It was a beautiful Fall day here in Maryland. Found lots of yardsales but I had my son with me so I just went to a few and was home by 10:30am. The best buy was a set of 4 like new patio cushions for $5. If you've ever priced patio chair cushions, you know they aren't cheap. Of course I bought a bunch of other stuff, but nothing to write home about.

Forgot to mention that a year ago yesterday was when I got filmed for movie "Zen in the Art of Yardsailing" byThUnderground Films The last I heard they were still in the editing phase, I'll probably get edited right out of it - LOL! Here's a photo of me with the director and the sound guy. My house is a mess as usual, but they did rearrange somewhat for the filming.

Friday, November 04, 2005

First let me say that the Message Boards are back to normal (they were only out of commision for a few hours the other day). If you haven't checked out the boards, please do, the link is there on the left.

On Wednesday, I was at a CVS store and they had all their Halloween Candy priced at .50 a bag. The above pic is a small sampling of what I bought (I ended up buying 16 bags, but gave a lot to my dog's other family. Long story, my dog lives part-time with another family). The previous day at Walmart, I got some other candy. I bought bags of Hershey Kisses and some other stuff. I think I'm going to make those cookies with the Hershey kisses in them. But if I had known I was going to get so much candy at .50 a bag at CVS, I would not have bought the candy at Walmart.

On Wednesday at Smile, I bought several bottles of nice perfumes at $1 each. Sunflowers (Elizabeth Arden), Velocity (Mary Kay) and Calyx by Prescriptives. I had never heard of the Calyx but I knew Prescriptives is an expensive brand name.

On Thursday at Smile, I bought myself a Jack Daniels cowboy hat. It was only .50 and it looks brand new, and it's my size. Now I just need to find a rodeo to wear it to. A while ago, a regional shopping mall had a phrase in their ads "Buy the dress, the party will come". So I guess I could say something similar, Buy the cowboy hat, the rodeo will come.

The Mary Moo Moo that I bought last weekend for .10 bit the dust. I accidently knocked it over and it fell about a foot and a hefty chuck broke off. It surprised me how easily it broke.

It's going to be a nice day tomorrow, so there should be lots of yardsales. I'll have my son with me, so I may not get to a whole lot.

Yardsalequeen.com

I have a wide variety of interests: going to yard sales, garage sales, thrift stores, estate sales and rummage sales. After I had my son Jacob in 2000, I quit my job at a nuclear power plant after almost 10 years. Now I just sit home, eat bonbons and watch Ellen while I plan my strategy to hit next week's yardsales. Laugh. Dance. Yardsale.